The Greenville County Guardian ad Litem Program will hold a free training course starting October 1st to teach volunteers how to advocate for children taken from homes of abuse and neglect.The 30-hour training program focuses on the family court system, how to recognize abuse and neglect, and how to communicate with children and others involved in the case.A child advocate, or guardian ad litem, is trained to become the voice of a child in court. The program pairs the trained guardian ad litem with children involved in neglect and abuse cases in order to give family court judges a more complete picture of the children's needs.All volunteers must be at least 21 years old and pass a background and Central Registry check before they can take a case. Each case takes a commitment of about four to six hours per month, but volunteers are often the only source of stability for children who regularly move to different foster homes, transfer to new schools, change case workers and often lose contact with friends and extended family members. The program is in great need of males and African-Americans, however anyone with a heart for children in encouraged to apply.The Greenville County Guardian ad Litem program is a division of the S.C. Governor's Office of Executive Policy and Programs. For information, call Patty Dellinger at 864-467-5862 or visit www.Greenville.scgal.org.Greenville.scgal.org.